Æ22 - Severus Alexander ΝΙΚΑΙΕΩΝ

Nicaea's civic bronze coinage under Severus Alexander was produced by a city acutely aware of its own prestige — this was the site of the 325 AD Council, but more immediately relevant, a major administrative hub in Bithynia with direct road connections to the Bosporus crossings. Provincial bronzes of this period circulated locally and were not redeemable empire-wide, functioning essentially as municipally-issued small change filling gaps the central imperial mint had no interest in addressing.

The ΝΙΚΑΙΕΩΝ ethnic inscription reflects the city's assertion of civic identity, a convention Bithynian mints maintained with particular consistency through the Severan period.